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For a condiment is a thing which, while itself being eaten, causes other things to be eaten; the meaning of the passage, therefore, is that while death itself is consumed, being a condiment as it were, there is at the same time eaten whatever is flavoured or made palatable by death, and that is the entire world of beings in which the Brahmans and Kshattriyas hold the foremost place.
The Brahmanas are priest-books; the Upanishads, it is reasonable to say are Kshattriya-books; you often find in them Brahmans coming to Kshattriyas to learn the Inner Wisdom. The Brahmanas are books of ritual; the Upanishads came much later that the Brahmanas: that they represent a reaction towards spirituality from the tyranny of a priestly caste.
But this much, perhaps, we may venture without fear: the Kshattriyas of the Epic age were not the same as those of the Upanishads. They were not Adept-Kings and Teachers in the same way. By Epic age, I mean the age in which the epics were written, not that of which they tell.
But probably the day of the Kshattriyas was much earlier than that of the priests. The Marlow-Shakespear-Milton time was the Kshattriya period in English poetry; also the period during which the greatest souls incarnated, and produced the greatest work.
Vishnu, who is the cause of the origination, subsistence, and final destruction of the universe. Up. Moreover the clause 'to whom death is a condiment' shows that by the Brahmans and Kshattriyas, mentioned in the text, we have to understand the whole universe of moving and non-moving things, viewed as things to be consumed by the highest Self.
As has been said, 'By the application of knowledge on the part of the Sankhya, and of works on the part of the Yogins. And in the Bhishmaparvan we read, 'By Brahmanas, Kshattriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras, Madhava is to be honoured, served and worshipped he who was proclaimed by Sankarshana in agreement with the Satvata law. How then could these utterances of Badarayana, the foremost among all those who understand the teaching of the Veda, be reconciled with the view that in the Sutras he maintains the non- authoritativeness of the Satvata doctrine, the purport of which is to teach the worship of, and meditation on, Vasudeva, who is none other than the highest Brahman known from the Vedanta-texts?
Also the Buddha was a Kshattriya; so the ancient eminence of the Kshattriyas had to be obscured a little; it was the Brahmans, by that time, who were monopolizing the teaching office. And no doubt in the same way from time to time much has been added: the Brahmans could do this, being custodians of the sacred literature.
Whether it represents a new ascendency of the Kshattriyas, or simply a continuance of the old one: whether the priesthood had risen to power between the Vedas and this, and somewhat fallen from it again, or whether their rise was still in progress, but not advanced to the point of ousting the kings from their lead, who can say?
I was touched by the piteous appeals of the women and disturbed you for the sake of duty." At this, the sage becomes still more furious and says trembling, "O Villain! speak of duty! What is your duty?" The king replies, "O god! gifts to virtuous Brahmans, protection of those afflicted with fear, and fight with enemies are the three chief duties of Kshattriyas." The sage thereupon observes,
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